Balanced scorecards – an airport example

Photo from thisislondon.co.uk

I have written before on balanced scorecards at London’s Heathrow Airport.  London Gatwick too has a balance scorecard which has similar performance measures (e.g. security wait time, seat availability, flights on time etc.).

I noticed the monthly performance report at Gatwick was displayed publicly again, on the walk-way to the departure gates – better than a corridor to the gents for sure as at Heathrow.  Both the Heathrow and Gatwick scorecards are linked to  a scheme operated by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and the main objective of these scheme is to reward for meeting targets that improve customer service.  If targets are achieved then, extra public funding can be paid to the airport, whereas failure to meet targets results in payments by the airport.

The performance measures in both these scorecards are no doubt related to a strategic objective something like “to improve and maintain customer service” – which I imagine would be quite an important objective to any airport. It seems the targets too are reviewed on a regular basis by the CAA, which means customer performance improvement is at least possible. Have a look at the scorecard web page to see more.